Waikato inductees in New Year’s Honours

John Gallagher (Hamilton) – to be a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to business, education, philanthropy and the community.

John Gallagher was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 and has since continued to serve and contribute to his community and various organisations.

Mr Gallagher is recognised as a community leader and philanthropist and is a major shareholder and director of Gallagher Holdings Ltd. He continues to serve as a director of Habitat for Humanity Hamilton, where for over 25 years as chair he guided the organisation from small beginnings to operating as the Central North Island Region.

He is a trustee of the Gallagher Charitable Trust, a member of the Hamilton Rotary Club for 30 years, a member and Fellow of the New Zealand Trustees Association, a member and Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. He served for 25 years on the council of the University of Waikato, including terms as Pro-Chancellor then Chancellor from 2003 to 2006.

He was a New Zealand National Fieldays Society founding exhibitor from inception, a Hamilton City councillor for 12 years and Waikato Regional councillor for three years. He was a trustee of Skycity Hamilton Community Trust from 2003 to 2009, Hamilton Garden’s Te Parapara Garden Trust from 2006 to 2012 and a councillor for the Young Enterprise Trust. In 2011 Mr Gallagher established and is a Trustee of the Glenice and John Gallagher Foundation.

How to nominate someone for an award.

Paula Baker (Hamilton) – to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to health governance and the community.

Paula Baker, 57, has been a trustee of the Braemar Charitable Trust since 2014 and general manager since 2016.

With Braemar Trust, Mrs Baker has championed such initiatives as the charitable surgery programme, providing free surgeries for those in need at Braemar Hospital, and the creation of several training programmes and scholarships for health education.

She has helped drive health equity, including establishing partnerships to provide free dental care to 170 patients regionally.

She was deputy chair of the New Zealand Dietitians Board from 2016 to 2019. She has served on the boards of Presbyterian Support (Northern), Kerikeri Retirement Village and Community Living Trust in Hamilton from 2017 to 2022.

Her current board memberships include the Alandale Foundation, Waihikurangi Charitable Trust, New Zealand Dental Council and Northern Districts Cricket. She has previously chaired the Hamilton Cricket Association. She was deputy chair of Hospice Waikato and chaired the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee. Baker volunteered for St John through the Friends of the Emergency Department initiative at Waikato Hospital.

Ian Foster (Newstead) – to be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to rugby.

Ian Foster, born in Putaruru who played his early rugby in Te Awamutu, was the assistant coach of the All Blacks from 2012 to 2019, before becoming head coach from 2020 until 2023.

As assistant coach, he contributed alongside Sir Steve Hansen, leading the All Blacks to win 93 of their 108 tests across eight years, including a Rugby World Cup (RWC) Gold medal in 2015 and RWC Bronze medal in 2019. As head coach he led the All Blacks to win and retain the Bledisloe Cup, the Freedom Cup, and the Rugby Championship each year from 2020 to 2023, as well as a RWC Silver medal in 2023. During his time as head coach, the All Blacks had a 70 percent win rate.

Prior to his time with the All Blacks, he coached the Waikato-based Chiefs Super Rugby team between 2004 and 2011, placing in the top eight across five years, and reaching the finals in 2004 and 2009. As a player, Mr Foster made 148 appearances in the fly-half position for Waikato and in 28 games for the Chiefs.

Fred Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura – Waiuku) – to be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to Māori art.

Fred Graham has been involved in New Zealand art since the 1950s and has contributed to the growth, development and promotion of Māori art nationally and abroad.

Graham was an art adviser to Māori primary schools throughout Rotorua and Northland. He has been head of the Art Department at various schools throughout the North Island and he has played a key role in inspiring and developing the next generation of artistic talent. He was a pioneer of the Contemporary Māori Art Movement and in 1966 he was a key figure in organising one of the first exhibitions of contemporary Māori painting and sculptures in Hamilton. He has represented New Zealand at many international exhibitions throughout his career, including the 1986 ‘Te Ao Marama’ (‘Seven Māori Artists’) exhibition that toured Australia and a 1992 United States tour showcasing contemporary Māori art.

More recently he has exhibited at the Venice Biennale. Since 1996 he has served on the Haerewa Māori Cultural Advisory Group at the Auckland Art Gallery. He mentors young sculptors and artists. He has produced sculptures that are displayed in many New Zealand cities and towns – including in Cambridge where he designed the Le Quesnoy Sculpture unveiled in 2019 to mark the centenary of the 1918 liberation of the French town of Le Quesnoy by Kiwi soldiers – as well as galleries in Seattle, Vancouver and South Korea. Most recently, Graham was commissioned to create sculptures for the new Catholic College in Drury and a roundabout south of Tirau.

Clare Hutchinson-de Ranitz (Hamilton) – to be an Honorary Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to midwifery.

Hutchinson has been championing support for whānau in midwifery in Hamilton for more than 40 years and was a founding member of the New Zealand College of Midwives (NZCOM) in 1990 and became the inaugural Lead Maternity Carer in the Waikato region, following the Nurses Amendment Act 1991. As the lead from 1991 until 2022, she delivered more than 5000 babies and provided feedback and advice to the NZCOM to document her and her colleagues’ experiences. She helped establish River Ridge Birth Centre  in 1997 at Southern Cross Hospital to provide an alternative birthing option for whānau, other than hospital or home births.

When River Ridge closed in 2002, she initiated the establishment of River Ridge East Birth Centre, a purpose-built Primary Birthing Facility. She has overseen the operations since 2002, which has since seen more than 11,000 babies born. To provide lactation consultant services for free, she helped create the Hamilton Breastfeeding Trust, with ongoing funding support secured from supporters and organisations. As a member of the Waikato Maternity Quality and Safety Committee since 2009 she has been contributing to ongoing quality improvements to the development of maternity-specific services. Hutchinson-de Ranitz supported Single Parent Services Waikato from 2004 to 2023, providing food, clothing and other support.

Dr Ingrid Huygens (Hamilton)  – to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to education and Maori.

Huygens is a community psychologist who co-founded ‘Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People’ in 2006, an education programme on Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

A New Zealand-born child of Dutch immigrants and longtime member of the Pākehā Tiriti movement since the 1980s, Huygens helped organise a national conference for tauiwi communities to support Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2000. The not-for-profit Tangata Tiriti formed in response to calls by refugee and migrant communities for treaty education in plain English, and in their own languages. She has been the organisation’s National Coordinator since 2012, and helped establish the ground-breaking programme ‘Te Tiriti in our Languages’ in 2022, which now produces Tiriti education resources in more than 25 languages of New Zealand communities, including New Zealand Sign Language and Easy Read format. Her 2007 PhD traced the contributions of Pākehā Treaty education groups to honour Te Tiriti in collaboration with ngā iwi Māori. She was a co-author of ‘Ngāpuhi Speaks’ (2012), an independent report on Waitangi Tribunal hearings into He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, a publication now widely used in tertiary education. Huygens travels the country running Tiriti workshops, facilitator training and professional development for NGOs, councils, schools, ethnic communities and government groups about Te Tiriti and the colonial history of New Zealand.

Fred Irvine (Hamilton) –  to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to woodcraft and education.

Irvine is an expert woodturner who has taught woodcraft skills to people of all ages and backgrounds, imparting valuable practical skills to younger students and facilitating community connection through the craft. Irvine taught woodcraft skills at Hamilton primary schools from 1969 to 1989, when he began teaching adults at Waikato Polytechnic. He organised the purchase and installation of 12 woodworking lathes at the polytechnic. From the 1990s he ran a range of courses up until the polytechnic ceased offering woodturning in 2012. He then helped establish the Avalon Woodturners club, who rented the lathes and premises. He later helped purchase the tools and equipment from the polytechnic and to establish a new workshop for the club. He helped establish the Waikato Guild of Woodworkers and has been patron of the club since 2000. He has specialised in the challenging art of ornamental woodturning and assisted international firm Teknatool to develop new equipment for ornamental turning. He taught ornamental woodturning throughout New Zealand for more than 10 years. He has demonstrated his abilities at symposia nationally and internationally, including setting up a course at a college in Shandan, China. Irvine was the third person to receive Life Membership of the National Association of Woodworkers.

Paul Malpass (Taumarunui) – to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to health.

Dr Malpass was a specialist General Surgeon and Public Health Physician, who has been contributing to his community, district health boards, government agencies and health accreditation for more than 45 years.

Malpass began as a General Surgeon with the Royal Air Force in 1972; worked at Taumarunui Hospital from 1976, including the role of Surgeon Superintendent until 1992. He was appointed surgical director to the Midland Regional Authority from 1992 to 2000. He served multiple terms at the Waikato District Health Board, and during this time was a strong advocate for rural health needs. In 2001, he consulted in public health and general surgery, including a 3-month tour in East Timor. He was the Chief Medical Officer of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board between 2001 and 2008. He was the inaugural Head of the Bay of Plenty Multidisciplinary Clinical School in 2008, and assisted in its development. He served as Clinical Director of Taupō Hospital, Lakes District Health Board from 2013 to 2017. Dr Malpass was a member of the Waikato Consumer Council from 2018 to 2023 and served on the Taumarunui Oranga Tamariki Care and Protection Resource Panel from 2022 to 2023.

Emeritus Professor Asad Mohsin (Hamilton) – to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to the Muslim community and education.

Mohsin has been a distinguished academic in hospitality and tourism management, bringing international experience to his role. Mohsin served as the President of the Waikato Multicultural Council and Waikato Muslim Association between 2014 and 2023, initiating the first Multicultural Day in Hamilton, now held annually. He was a founding member of the Waikato Intercultural Fund Board and was a member of the Tourism Waikato Advisory Board between 2005 and 2006. He was the President of the Waikato Muslim Association from 2017 to 2023, leading the organisation to arrange the first New Zealand Muslim Leaders Symposium in 2018. As a Trustee of the Hamilton Multicultural Services Trust since 2018, he has engaged through the Settlement Centre Waikato to help migrants and refugees to connect with New Zealand culture, community and events. He was the Assistant Director of the New Zealand India Research Institute with Victoria University of Wellington from 2012. He retired in 2024 as a Professor in Tourism and Hospitality Management and the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Community Engagement at the University of Waikato. Mohsin facilitated a $30,000 annual scholarship fund through an MOA between the University of Waikato and the Waikato Muslim Association for annual awarding to four Muslim students, following the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack.

Linda Te Aho (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Ngāti Mahuta, Waikato) – to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to Māori and legal education.

Associate Professor Linda Te Aho has contributed significantly to legal education at Te Piringa Faculty of Law, University of Waikato. She established the Māori and Indigenous Governance Research Centre at the Faculty and has long served as Associate Dean Māori. As an appointed guardian for the co-management of the Waikato River ecosystem in 2012, she was instrumental in developing the vision for the river’s holistic restoration. She was appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Group in 2014 to provide technical advice on proposed reforms to Te Ture Whenua Māori 1993, chairing the group in 2015. She is a technical advisor on Māori legal issues in relation to lands and freshwater for iwi, Crown agencies and government departments.

Her publications, ‘Towards a Rangatiratanga Framework for Governance of Waterways’, and ‘Te Mana o te Wai’ have contributed to debate on proposed reforms to the Resource Management Act. She is a member of the Te Arataura Tribal Executive for Waikato Tainui, and a trustee for Ngāti Koroki Kahukura. She is a member of Ngārimu VC and 28th Māori Battalion Memorial Scholarship Fund Board. Associate Professor Te Aho has served as a Director of Tainui Group Holdings, and as a negotiator for Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Treaty Claims.

Te Aho is the daughter of Tioriori (Wally) and Vivienne Papa who raised five children – Ataahua, Linda, Pānia, Rahui and Wiki – from the Pōhara marae not far from Tokoroa. She attended Tokoroa High School and studied law at Auckland University.

Anita Varga (Matamata) – to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit – for services to women and the construction industry.

Anita Varga contributes to the construction industry through business and empowering women into the industry. She was the first woman to hold the Regional Manager position at Fulton Hogan through which she made structural improvements and development plans to positively impact her team. She has mentored and guided women into leadership roles and supported leaders to motivate young men and women into the construction industry. Passionate about development, she has encouraged multiple women into tertiary qualifications. She was instrumental in the introduction of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the Tauranga region and introduced specially designed equipment for pregnant individuals. She has been chair of the National Association of Women in Construction New Zealand since 2022 and has been motivating young women within and into the construction industry in the Bay of Plenty region. As chair she helps organise the annual National Association of Women in Construction Awards, which recognises and celebrates women in construction. In 2021 Varga was awarded the Helen Tippett Award by the National Association of Women in Construction.

Sally Davies (Te Awamutu) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to hockey and nursing.

Sally Davies has volunteered at Te Awamutu Sports Hockey Club (TAHC) since 1990 as a coach and served as the inaugural president until 2007. She was instrumental in establishing hockey under the Te Awamutu Sports banner upon the club’s establishment, having previously been involved as a player for the Rebels club with the Waipa Hockey Association.

She has coached teams up to premier grade for TAHC and remains active coaching a present reserve grade side. She has volunteered as a coach at Te Awamutu Intermediate School since 1982 and is a key driver of intermediate school hockey.

She was a player in the New Zealand Masters 50s team in the late 1990s and selects and coaches teams for the AIMS games in Tauranga, also having been involved in fundraising for these events. She was made a Life Member of Te Awamutu Sports Hockey and Waikato Hockey and has received the New Zealand Hockey Service Award. In addition to her hockey volunteering, Davies has been a practice nurse in Te Awamutu since 1978 and was one of the first nurses in New Zealand to specialise in diabetes management.

Marie Gilpin (Papamoa – formerly Tamahere) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to the community.

Marie Gilpin has been the industrial chaplain for Westpac Bank, Gallaghers Group, and Placemakers in Hamilton.

With the Ministry to Seafarers in Mount Maunganui, Reverend Gilpin provided support to staff, planning and facilitating learning and skills forums, training for staff on stress management, and spiritual care of seafarers in hospital. She is currently in her eleventh year as chaplain to the Mount Maunganui Returned and Services Association, including officiating at ANZAC commemoration services.

She was a member of the Anglican Diocese Discernment Panel in Hamilton, recruiting for clergy and training them for ordination. She was a voluntary social worker for the former Department of Social Welfare in Hamilton for five years, and chaplain for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. She organised seminars for those coping with grief for the Cancer Society.

She was appointed to Saint Stephen’s Church in Tamahere and then as vicar at Mount Maunganui. With her husband, she has organised and led a choir for the community, playing the piano and organ for concerts. Rev Gilpin helped established the Neighbourhood Support Group for Mount Maunganui in 2008, helping divide the area into six zones and designating a coordinator for each zone.

Valerie Lissette (Hamilton) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to dance.

Valerie Lissette established the Valerie Lissette School of Dance (VLSD) in Hamilton in 1976 and has taught dance in the Waikato community for 47 years, handing over directorship of the school in 2024.

Lissette expanded the studio from teaching ballet to include jazz, tap, contemporary, and musical theatre for all ages, later including age group classes for pre-schoolers and adults over 55. She has prepared thousands of dancers for Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) ballet examinations and has mentored many who have gone on to successful dance careers nationally and internationally. She was recognised as a Life Member of RAD in 2008. She provided a platform for every student to perform annually in theatrical productions which she directed and produced, organising all aspects from costuming to lighting, choreography and theme. On many occasions the Imperial Russian Ballet requested students from VLSD to join their performances when in Hamilton. In 2016, 36 children performed in ‘The Nutcracker’. Lissette has offered dance classes in the Waikato towns of Cambridge, Tamahere and Te Uku and has personally performed with the Hamilton Operatic Society for more than 20 years.

Ron Moles (Matamata) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to education and the community.

Ron Moles has contributed to the Matamata community and was Principal of Firth Primary from 1976 to 1992.

Mr Moles’ leadership in Special Education Programmes saw the establishment of a special needs unit at Firth Primary, a New Zealand first. He has been a long-serving delegate to the Waikato branch of the New Zealand Education Institute and the NZEI Principals Council. He held Executive roles including President, Secretary and Counsellor of Matamata-Putaruru NZEI and has been a long-time coordinator of Matamata District Principals Association. He is involved with Keep Matamata Beautiful Society, Matamata Centennial Drive Committee, and the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust. He instigated and managed the Outdoor Education Camping Unit for schools in the Matamata District, helped establish the Matamata Health Shuttle in 2007, and is a Life Member of Matamata Grey Power. He is a Life Member of Matamata Kiwanis Club, joining in 1977 and holding positions as President and Secretary for many years. He led a group of Morrinsville principals in the development of a set of Student Reports to Parents, subsequently used as a template by many schools nationwide in the 1970s. In 2005 Mr Moles coordinated the planting of several Gallipoli Pines from Chunuk Bair at Matamata schools and planted and maintained the Matamata RSA Cemetery garden for 20 years.

Fiona Murdoch (Hamilton) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to dance.

Fiona Murdoch has introduced communities to folk dance across 30 years and is an accomplished tutor of international folk-dance.

Murdoch has studied and collected many folk dances, including dances of the Celtic Nations, Balkan and European countries, and historical period dances including Regency and Colonial dances, amongst others. She was a member of the New Zealand ‘Maenads’ Dance Group which performed in Greece in 2007 and has facilitated many folk-dance workshops and events. She founded Dance Folkus in Hamilton in 1994 and has been teaching these various styles of dance throughout New Zealand. She has choreographed folk-dance demonstrations at the Hamilton Gardens, Waikato Museum, Auckland Folk Festival, National Folk Dance Camps, as well as invited and ticketed private events. An inaugural member of Folk Dance New Zealand in 1995, she has previously served as President and is a Life Member. Ms Murdoch was awarded the Hamilton City Civic Award in 2013 for her contributions to community dance.

Rangimahora Mokomoko Reddy (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Rangitāne – Hamilton) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to Māori health.

Reddy has dedicated more than 20 years to Māori health and wellbeing and has been the chief executive of Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust (Rauawaawa) since 2010, a culturally focused charity providing health and wellbeing, housing, welfare, education and recreational services for kaumātua. During her leadership, Rauawaawa has pioneered Kaumātua-centred programmes, including national and regional wellbeing events, commenced the revitalisation of Rauawaawa’s “Te Puna o Te Ora” facility into New Zealand’s first dementia and age-friendly, Kaumātua-led and digitally enabled, community hub. She helped establish the Rauawaawa Enterprise for Kaumātua Aspirations (REKA), a social enterprise initiative that produced Māori designed cookie cutters to support Kaumātua with dementia. She co-led research projects supporting Kaumātua health through cultural practices, promoting intergenerational knowledge transfer and social connection, and sharing housing and social enterprise models. She has served on numerous advisory committees for older persons’ wellbeing and recently completed an Ageing Fellow secondment with the Ministry of Health. Reddy’s work reflects a strong commitment to enhancing Māori health and the wellbeing of kaumātua and her achievements have been recognised with the Hamilton City Civic Award in 2018 and the Age Concern New Zealand Huia Award in 2022.

Richard Steele (Ōwhango) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to the rural community.

Steele has been supporting his rural community of Whanganui and Ruapehu for more than 40 years. He helped establish and was inaugural president of the Ruapehu Federated Farmers Province in 1990, serving three terms as president and remaining as an executive member since being appointed a Life Member. The Ruapehu Federated Farmers Province was formed to ensure voices of the rural community from the Ruapehu region were heard, particularly on issues such as Bovine TB outbreaks. He provided information to farmers on the need to understand controls on TB outbreaks and advocated for them to receive compensation for the loss of cattle due to the outbreak. He served on the Regional Animal Health Committee between 1990 and 2006 working on education and eradication of TB through possum control. In 2008 he helped form the Rural Support Trust with others, to provide mental wellbeing support due to the drought-like conditions farmers were facing. With the Rural Support Trust, they created a space where support and advice were provided on issues such as managing finances. He served as chair for several years. Steele has been a member of the Friends of the Whanganui River Group and received life membership.

Grahame Webber (Cambridge) – the King’s Service Medal – for services to local government and farming governance.

Grahame Webber has contributed to farming and local government in the Waikato region since the 1980s. He was a member of Cambridge Federated Farmers from 1982 to 2020, chaired the Dairy Section of Waikato Federated Farmers from 1989 to 1991, and was director of the New Zealand Dairy Group from 1991 to 1994. He was elected to the Waipā District Council from 2001 to 2022, serving as deputy mayor from 2010 to 2019. He served on numerous council committees, including chairing the Service Delivery Committee, Strategic Planning and Policy Committee, and the Maungatautari Reserve Committee. He served on the Cambridge Community Board from 1998 to 2022 and implemented an annual tour of the urban-based board to visit rural communities to learn of their local issues. He chaired the Sister City Committee with Le Quesnoy in France and Bihoro in Japan from 2007 to 2019. He organised Cambridge delegations to Bihoro, travelling at his own expense, and visits from Bihoro focusing on agriculture, education, health services and local government. He has administered the fund which assists school students with exchanges between the towns. Webber has been a member of regional committees including the Waikato Region Land Transport Committee, the Waikato River and Catchment Committee and the Future Proof Implementation Committee.